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Tarp setup

Hello everyone,

I am looking for recommendations from you all on the lightest, easiest, and most durable setup to use with my Superfly tarp. I want to switch to a new system for both the ridgeline and the guy lines. I am open to all suggestions. Point me in the right direction!

I use mini-lineloks permanently attached on little loops at the tarp end of my guy-lines, and tiny Dutch-hooks at the stake end. I leave the guy lines attached to the miniLineLoks (Spectra no-tangle line). No knots to tie or untie this way. I don't use a ridgeline.

Something hidden. Go and find it. Go, and look behind the Ranges. Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you . . . Go! - Rudyard Kipling

While the continuous ridgeline adds convenience, it also adds a length of cordage equal to your tarp's length. In my case, that's 11' which adds 3 grams (0.1 ounces) beyond a non-continuous ridgeline. Well worth it in my opinion.

I was using snakeskins which I dearly love, but I recently switched to using 7 pieces of braided mason line, 18" long each. As I roll my tarp from one corner, I tie a piece of line every 18" as I go. I've found this to perform equal to the snakeskins and I SAVED 2 OUNCES!

BTW, I have run my continuous ridgeline over and under the tarp, and have decided that I like under the best.

My corner tie-outs use the same line. I tie a perfection loop in one end and larks head it to the tarp D-ring and use a Marlin spike hitch at the stake. Or, if I'm tying to a bush I use a tautline hitch. This line has a spectra core but a polyester sheath that holds hitches very well.

Ridgeline - 15' ZingIt/LashIT with a Dutch Zingerz on 1 end, clipped to the tarp X2.

Tie-Outs - Small Loop of shock cord with a triangular line lock (from the HF store) threaded on it. This is larks headed onto the tieout ring (in case I want to change it out). Then I run a 4-10 ft length of Zing It thru the line lock with a fixed eye (for the stake) at one end, back splice at other end.

Simple, light, easy to modify or swap out. Have also used a prussick inplace of the linelocks if you are trying to minimize hardware.
Jason

Huge prussik fan. Picked up a tip from HamMike, if you put the prussiks on your tarp tie-outs you can adjust tension from inside/underneath your tarp. Also prefer my tarp under a full-length ridgeline and just 'biner my tarp to prussiks on the ridgeline and pull taught.

Has almost no hardware and I've used this in some treacherous conditions and it's worked flawlessly for me. YMMV

How did you get the clothesline to work? The one and only time I tried that I ended up having the water soak through my tarp where I had hung my socks and then my tarp started to drip right at that very spot, which happened to be right over my head.

Tarp setup

Originally Posted by Dave-O

Mike,

How did you get the clothesline to work? The one and only time I tried that I ended up having the water soak through my tarp where I had hung my socks and then my tarp started to drip right at that very spot, which happened to be right over my head.

Sincerely,
Dave-O

Good point, Dave! I suspect you were using a silnylon tarp, which could have that problem. I use a cuben tarp with zero bleed through. I suspect that a PU tarp would not bleed through either. I used to use a Spinnaker tarp and ran my continuous ridgeline over that one.